Understanding The Qualifying Offer
The World Series ended just over a week ago, but the offseason is already in full swing. Free agents are free to sign with any club they wish and we’ve even had our first significant trade. The MLB offseason is a little slower to develop than some of the other major sports, but there is plenty to follow from the start. One of the first steps in the offseason journey is the extension and acceptance or decline of the Qualifying Offer (QO). The qualifying offer is a pretty simple concept that comes along with some relatively important consequences.
It works like this. Teams who are losing free agents are able to offer those free agents a one-year contract which the players can choose to accept or reject. If the player rejects the contract and signs with another team, the team who lost the player gets an extra (between the first and second rounds) draft pick the following June and the team signing the player loses their first round pick the following year. Because this is baseball, there are a number of nuances to that description.